California Public Utilities Commission president, Michael Peevey, at his San Francisco, Ca. office on Tuesday Jan, 25, 201. Photo at right, is Peevey, (center) walking with Cesar Chevez, (right) back in Dec. 1965 in Delano, Ca. during a grape strike. less

California Public Utilities Commission president, Michael Peevey, at his San Francisco, Ca. office on Tuesday Jan, 25, 201. Photo at right, is Peevey, (center) walking with Cesar Chevez, (right) back in Dec. ... more

Californians who love their state parks can donate their time and money to a foundation that is dedicated to enhancing the facilities and educational offerings, from restoring wetlands to establishing a junior ranger program.

The missions of these two government endeavors are so inherently different that to suggest that a state PUC foundation could be modeled after the State Parks Foundation - as creators of the PUC foundation claim, with a straight face - is simply laughable.

The state parks foundation has raised more than $160 million since 1969, much of it from Californians who regularly visit parks. No one packs up the family in a minivan to go to a PUC meeting. The folks who are most likely to contribute to its foundation are the utilities that are regulated by the commission.

As Matier & Ross reported Wednesday, the seed money for this new foundation will come from the surplus from its 100th-anniversary dinner in San Francisco tonight. All the big utilities have bought tables, at $20,000 each.

"This is not an effort to strong-arm utilities into giving money to the foundation," PUC President Michael Peevey said. He pointed out that the dinner had many other paid sponsors, including attorneys and consumer activists. None of them, however, were at the $20,000 level.

So what will the foundation do with its money? Peevey said he hoped it would allow its "beleaguered and underpaid staff" to attend seminars and other business-related events that would not otherwise be reimbursable with public funds. Peevey noted that neither he nor anyone else within the PUC would control the private foundation's spending decisions.

Tom MacBride, a foundation director, said he expected the funds to underwrite "public-education programs" about the PUC. He said many Californians were unaware that the commission regulates not only public utilities such as PG&E but also airport shuttles, household-moving companies and BART safety. (A Californian with a complaint about a moving company today could learn in about a 10-second Google search that the PUC is the regulator of such services.)

"It's not going to be a slush fund," MacBride said.

If the PUC wants to improve its image, it might start by toughening its oversight of utilities in the wake of the deadly San Bruno explosion. As the PUC prepared to celebrate its centennial, San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and The Utility Reform Network (TURN) petitioned the commission Wednesday to undertake a comprehensive investigation into the San Bruno rupture and explosion. Herrera said the inquiry must be "transparent, public and include critical and independent thinking" to reassure Californians who have become wary of the condition of natural-gas pipelines.

The outrage is that Herrera and the consumer group had to ask the PUC to do its job. The aftermath of the September disaster in San Bruno has raised many disturbing questions about the regulator's seemingly deferential approach to PG&E on matters of safety regulation.

A PUC foundation bankrolled in part by utility dollars is only going to advance that perception of coziness - not exactly the smartest public-relations move for the agency.

Gov. Jerry Brown this week took an important step toward strengthening the PUC's watchdog sensibility with the appointment of two respected consumer advocates, Mike Florio and Catherine Sandoval. The governor has one more seat to fill on the five-member panel.

By the way, Californians who feel compelled to contribute to the PUC mission should be assured that they already do: Its funding is derived from a portion of our monthly utility bills.

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